Safe and Sound

by lil-lover16

There are people in the world, who have been tested on, held captive, and changed. No one has ever seen them again. And now, Brittany and her step-brother Blaine are stuck int he constant struggle to stay alive and appease the man who controls their fate. VERY AU. It's just some weird thing I thought of. Rated for language and gore... sort of.

AN: Okay, so this is super, super, SUPER AU and I warn you it really only has a bit of the characters from Glee, but i consider it a Glee fanfic, so therfore I shall publish it. Hope you like it!

Rubble; that's all that surrounds me. Everything is blasted to pieces and the homes that once littered the area were up in flames, or already burned to ashes. I spun slowly, taking in the sight of my home-at least what used to be my home- and began walking back to my mother, who stood in the center of the town square, still frozen in terror. My brother, Blaine, wrapped his arm around me and it was then that I noticed the men, standing in straight lines, white suits covering their bodies.

Children were crying, but I couldn't hear anything except the whistling in my ears as I watched a group of the white-coats gather around a little boy, they grabbed his arm and yanked him into a truck. Another group of the men snatched a girl I knew. Marissa Hartikay, a young girl who was in the fifth grade, a year below me. They dragged her to the truck and threw her in the back. I watched as her mother struggled against the white-coats, fighting to get her daughter back, safe in her arms. But the white-coats only put a gun to her head and pushed her away. I closed my eyes and heard the gun-shot. It rang in my ears.

My brother's grip on my hand tightened, and that's when I realized I wasn't with him anymore. Before I could understand, the white-coats had thrown me in with Marissa, and I fell to the floor of the truck with a thud. Blaine landed next to me. His eyes were wide and he was trying to tell me something, but I couldn't hear the words, only saw his mouth move, his hands reaching out to shake me out of my stupor.

"Mom," I squeaked. "Mommy."

"Brittany," Blaine shouted, "Mom is fine. The men didn't shoot her. She's fine. Relax."

"No, I need her, I need to get out! What are they doing to us?" I cried, my neck starting to ache from whipping my head around to see my surroundings. As far as I could tell, the white-coats hadn't put any contraptions that would harm us in the back. But I couldn't be sure, there could be gas vents that would knock me out, give me hallucinations, or worse.

"Shut up back there!" A man opened the door and tossed another boy in. He looked about my age, his green eyes wild and his muscles tense.

He looked at his surroundings like I had, before searching the truck for secret ways out, shoving me and Marissa out of the way in his haste. His eyes intelligently scanned the roof, until he finally gave up and collapsed into sobs in the corner.

The doors opened again and Marissa lunged, only to be knocked back into me and Blaine. The white-coats shoved another girl in. She was older looking, but still definitely under eighteen. She didn't have the wild look that Marissa, the green-eyed boy and I all had. She was far from calm, but it was like it didn't comprehend. Being in a truck with five other random children, being taken from her family; it all seemed to not have gone through her head.

The truck began to rumble, its engine starting as we squealed away from home. Thoughts raced through my head but I didn't pay attention to them. Instead I studied my companions.

The little boy that the white-coats had thrown in first was shaking, his big brown eyes wide with fear and anguish.

He seemed to be about eight years old, maybe even younger. His cheeks were hollow, which probably meant he had been one of the starving after they bombed us.

Three weeks had passed since the bombs obliterated our city, but the damage appeared fresh each time I saw it.

The older girl, the newest of the captured, appeared to be a merchant's child, one of the few that survived the bombing and could afford bread, water, and necessities to survive. She wasn't exactly well fed, but it seemed as if she had been okay after the bombing. I realized I'd seen her before in town. She was the girl who had gone insane after seeing her father get beheaded in the square as punishment for rebelling against the government. That was before the bombing though.

I had already known Marissa before this, so I swung my gaze over to the green-eyed boy, who noticed my attentive stare and sat up, wiping silver tracks off his face. He flipped his blonde hair out of his face. His eyes were red and his lips swollen from biting them anxiously. Quivering, he stood up. The door of the truck had slits to see through, and I could smell the exhaust from the vehicle.

"Well, since we'll be here a while, why don't we exchange names?" Blaine asked calmly.

The older girl nodded. "Marielle." Her voice was soft, but she definitely sounded like she wasn't mentally with it.

"Daniel," the little boy said quietly.

"I'm Brittany," I said, the words escaping my mouth before I could stop them. Thankfully, my voice hadn't shaken with fear.

"Blaine," my brother introduced. "What's your name?" he asked the green-eyed kid.

"Sam," the boy whispered, sitting back down with one last glance at the outside world. "It seems like they've driven us into a tunnel. I can only see darkness."

He was right. As I peered out of the slits in the door, all I could see was occasional flashes of light, which were probably torches of the sides of a tunnel.

"Where are they taking us?" the boy, Daniel, wondered.

"If we knew, we'd tell you," Sam grumbled, folding his arms over his chest to get warmer. The truck was freezing inside, the metal touching my skin making me shiver at contact.

"Don't be harsh," Marielle scolded lightly. "We're all scared and lost."

Sam frowned. "Of course we are, but what's even more frightening is the fact that we don't have our parents, we're lost, and these guys don't seem too friendly."

A thump on the door separating us from the driver's seat startled us into silence.

"Shut up, kids," a voice growled. "We're here, and you'd better behave."

The doors swung open and bright light practically blinded me. Sam, who was closest to the door, was swept out of the truck and handcuffed immediately by a white-coat. He was shoved into another white-coat and led off. Hands grabbed at me and I was tugged forcefully out of the truck. Cold, silver handcuffs wound around my wrists and I was pushed away, being led to where Sam and the white-coat holding him were. I saw a huge grey building ahead of us, which I guessed was our destination. Blaine was next to me then, gawking at the enormous structure.

Once all six of us were handcuffed, we were led into the strange building. Almost instantly the smell of alcohol, air freshener, and rotten flesh hit my nose. I gagged, as did most of the other captives.

"The Boss wants to see you immediately," the white-coat leading me hissed to us, his obsidian eyes burning with intense interest, a sick, horrible interest. "He wants to see if you're all fit enough to test on."

"Test on?" Sam gulped, earning a sharp blow to the head.

"Listen, and keep quiet. You're only to talk when you are told. Or else," the white-coat shrugged, making a slicing motion at his throat. I was quiet for the rest of the walk.

We finally got to a large, oak door and the white-coat in charge of Blaine rapped on the door.

"Come," a deep voice called from the other side.

We entered silently, standing in front of a man who looked German, his thick mustache curling above his lip, his beady eyes taking in the sight of me and my companions. His body seemed to be made entirely of muscle, his hands strong and calloused. "So, this is what you rounded up," he rumbled, the German accent in his voice proving my theory correct.

"Yes, sir," the white-coat in charge of me said. "They were randomly selected, like you ordered, sir."

"Good. We can't have just the strong or just the weak. These tests are important to me," the German man said. He unfolded out of his chair like a cobra and walked over to Marissa, turning her head from side to side. "Interesting specimen. Seemingly strong, muscled, but not toned, unfortunately, attractive enough. Keep her."

"Yes, sir," the white-coat next to Marissa said, before leading her out of the room.

The man moved to stand in front of Sam. "Attractive, toned muscles, good, rebellious one I can tell… he'll do. Take him to the lab."

Sam fought against the white-coat that held him, and was shoved out of the room. I could hear him still struggling to get out of the harsh grip of the white-coats. I heard a zap and the struggle lessened. I guessed they had tasered Sam, knowing that their boss had told them to keep him for testing.

Testing for what? I asked myself, as the Boss stepped in front of Blaine. My teeth chattered nervously, hoping they would keep him. He was in good shape, and hopefully they needed people who were strong enough. But they also needed weak people. What if they didn't want him?

"He is… interesting. Not terrible looking, but not very handsome. We can fix that with some surgeries though, if he proves to be worthy of our experiments. Take him to the lab as well," the Boss murmured. He loomed over the small boy next to me. "And this… well, we need a weaker specimen to test on. See if he will withstand our rigorous training. Lead him to the lab, gentlemen."

His face then met mine and I forced myself not to blink under his gaze, not to shake or chatter nervously. "Keep her. She is strong, well muscled, looks like a tough one to break, like that blonde boy. Send her to the lab, please."

I swallowed hard, wondering what other experiments I would have to face as I walked down to the lab the Boss was so adamant about.

I heard a scream come from the room I had just left, a gunshot, then silence. I assumed that the Marielle girl had not met the Boss' standards.

We continued on until I caught sight of the incredibly white room with tanks, treadmills, machinery and weapons. My truck companions were standing there, in sickening awe of all the weapons hanging from walls, dripping from the ceilings, and scattered throughout the room. Underneath the hanging weapons were white-coats, some armored, some just in lab coats, all of them carrying clubs, tasers, and notebooks. They chattered as all of the kids gathered close together. I heard small bits of conversation aimed at us.

"Sensational creatures…"

"Strong looking specimens…"

"Teenagers…"

"Testing…"

"Training will be harder this year…"

"Bet only one will make it out alive…"

I tuned them out, disgusted by their words that seemed so casual, as if they were discussing the weather.

I felt someone's gaze on me, not harsh like the white-coats', but strangely intense. I turned my head to catch Sam's emerald eyes focused on mine.

He opened his mouth to say something, but just then the Boss came in, white-coats closing the door and locking it with a sharp click.

"Finally, we can begin the experimenting," the Boss said gleefully, a sadistic grin spreading across his large face. "As my newest specimens, I hope that you will at least try to cooperate. I don't want to kill any more of you."

He paused, taking in his audience. He waltzed over to a certain machine and put his hand on it, tapping lightly.

"This," he said, smiling at the machine fondly, "is my favorite part of the testing. This is a machine that will target the nerves in your body, making them go limp while we…ah, alter you. We have been practicing splicing genes in this laboratory, and we've come up with five different new genes! It's so exciting. So, we are going to destroy some of you body cells, brain cells, and nerve cells, so that the new cells we've created will eventually grow in your bodies, creating a sort of half-human-half-animal type creature. You will have animal instincts, some animalistic traits… hopefully, if this experiment turns out successful, we'll have hybrid humans! Some of you might even grow a tail!"

My mouth dropped open in horror. The Boss' pleased face drooped when he saw our reaction.

"Ah, I was hoping we wouldn't have to force you to agree, but what must be done, must be done!"

"You're psycho," Sam seethed, his hands clenched into fists.

"No, dear boy, I'm brilliant," the Boss grinned wolfishly. "Now, we have cells that we created with genes from almost every species, but only a few will work without killing you. Instantly, that is. I think this one is panthera pardus, or leopard," he said, pulling out a needle from his large white-coat pocket, "and this one is falco peregrines, or peregrine falcon, and this is chrysocyon brachyurus, or the maned wolf, this is… hmm…, catopuma temminckii, or the Asian golden cat, and this is agkistrodon piscivorus, otherwise known as cottonmouth snake."

I looked over to Blaine, only to find the same horror and shock that I was feeling reflected on his face.

"That's not possible," Marissa muttered.

"Oh, but it is. At least, we hope so. That's why you five are here. To test these newly made cells out and see if you can live! The cells will need at least a week to start to reproduce in your body, and if it works, you all will be the first humans ever to be half animal! We just hope that your regular body cells will be able to stay in your body, or else… well, we don't know what will become of you. That's why you are needed here. If all the tests are successful, you will be trained to be weapons for us, a species of half-humans that will live to destroy the regular humans, to create a stronger, more powerful force in the universe, and a new race of human."

We stared at the Boss, our faces stony and expressionless. My eyes slid to Sam's form, his emerald eyes cold and calculating, aimed at all the white-coats along the wall.

His eyes flicked to mine and we shared an exasperated, furious look. There was no way this man could be sane. He had the ideas of a mad scientist, which, I guess, he was. These ideas of… mutating human genes to adapt animalistic qualities and behaviors were sick and yet, fascinating in a way. But the thought that we would be used as an army of sorts, to create a new species of human was just plain crazy.

"So, without further ado," the Boss grinned, his smile skeletal and harsh, "we will begin the process of melding these genes with your own."

A group of white-coats with tasers rounded us up and forced us into a line, with Blaine at the front.

'It'll be okay,' he mouthed to me before being shoved into the machine. There was an incredible feeling of electricity crackling up my spine and by the stunned look on Sam's face, he felt it too.

The feeling faded and the Boss smiled proudly as he opened the machine. I saw him pull out Blaine's body, which looked like a life-less doll in his enormous arms. I gasped and wished I could move to Blaine, but the white-coat that held me lightly tapped my arm with a taser and it shocked me, making a yelp escape my mouth.

I stood quietly as Daniel made his way into the machine, shaking visibly. The same electric feeling sparked up my spine. The process was repeated again and Blaine and Daniel were taken away on stretchers, wheeled away to another room in the massive building. I watched as Sam struggled against the white-coats' hold, not even flinching when the tasers touched him. He was thrown into the machine after a couple minutes of futile fighting. Marielle went in after Sam's limp body was retrieved. I finally was tossed in, Marissa's body put on a stretcher before I entered the large machine.

It was cold inside, like I'd been pushed into a refrigerator. The inside was lined with silver tiles and it smelled like when I'd go to the lake; fishy and salty. The feeling of knives being scraped up my spine made me open my mouth in a stunned scream, but then everything faded into blackness.

When my eyes finally opened, all I could see was white. But as my eyesight adapted to the extreme brightness, I found a familiar shape in the room.

"Blaine!" I cried, trying to move from the position I'd been sleeping in, but a belt around my waist kept me in.

Green eyes suddenly appeared in the whiteness. I gasped in surprise, but then I realized it was Sam, his blonde hair looking longer and shaggy. His lips were pulled into a straight line.

"Good. You're alive," he said. "That Daniel boy didn't make it through. Died about five minutes ago."

"You seem so casual about that," I seethed.

"Relax, Brittany, it's hardly his fault," Blaine said, walking over to me. He untied me from the bed I'd been sleeping on, though it was nothing more than a hard bench with sheets and a pillow. "I think we're stuck here until we all wake up. Marissa is still asleep, but she's definitely breathing."

I stood up from the bed, my legs shaky and my head pounding. "How long have we been asleep?"

"About a day. Hopefully we'll get food soon. We need to wake Marissa up so the Boss can come get us," Sam said, pacing.

A sudden squeal of feedback erupted in the room and all three of us clapped our hands over our ears. "CHILDREN. YOU ARE NEEDED IN THE LAB. THE GUARDS WILL COME GET YOU SOON TO BRING YOU HERE AND PICK UP ANY BODIES."

Sam glared at the ceiling, probably wishing he could attack the Boss, all the white-coats, all the guards. I realized then that Sam was like fire; he couldn't be controlled unless someone cut off his oxygen.

A pillow hit the wall with a smack and we turned around to see Marissa, her eyes open and wet with tears. "How long have we been here?"

"Not more than a day," Blaine replied calmly. "It seems that we are needed in the Lab. Guards will be coming to retrieve us."

"It's like we're animals," Marissa sighed.

"Well, that's exactly the feeling they want, isn't it?" I stated. "They're training us to be vicious attack dogs at their beck and call. This feeling of being trapped, being alone, having no place to go; it's like we're caged dogs."

"She's right," Sam grumbled. "We're being injected with new cells that will make us animals; literally. They need this feeling beforehand so that the feeling will become permanent as our bodies change to the animal genes that will shape our behavior."

"In more advanced terms, yes that's exactly what I meant," I grumbled. This pulled a small grin from Sam and I smiled softly back at him.

There was a click and a door that I hadn't seen before in the blankness of the room slid open. Twenty-some white-coats with tasers and guns marched in and the four of us, Marissa and I being grabbed roughly by the same white-coat, we pulled out of the room. The last thing I saw before the dark hallway enveloped me was Daniel's cold body being lifted onto a stretcher.

We walked for several minutes before the Lab loomed up ahead of us. I recognized the walls lined with sharp, shiny metal and the gigantic figure of the Boss. We were lead into the room and the door banged shut behind us.

"Good, I'm glad only one of you didn't make it! This is extraordinary! You all have different genes culturing in your bodies. Isn't that fascinating?" the Boss chuckled with excitement.

"It's sick," Sam hissed.

"Oh, do shut up," the Boss said fondly. "You are, after all, an animal, and therefore, my property."

"Then can I have some food? I'm sure you wouldn't want to starve your little pet," Sam growled.

A white-coat pulled out his taser and shock Sam quickly. Sam flinched and his lip curled in pain.

"Good boy," the Boss said mockingly. "Now, each of you has been given the genes of a specific endangered animal. But, before we start training and have dinner, I will have my assistants do blood tests, check-up on your over-all health, and I will interview you to get names, interests, all sorts of stuff. Just so you don't feel like we're here only to hurt you. Because, as scientists, we only want what's best for the world and the human race."

The Boss smiled at this and Sam scoffed, but didn't say anything nasty in reply. He stood stone still, his hands clenched furiously. Sam's eyes glittered dangerously as he glared at the Boss and I was afraid he would attack him, but he didn't. he concealed his rage with a barely noticeable shake of his head.

"Very smart, boy. Now, I would like to interview you all first. I don't want to call you Specimen One and such!" the Boss joked and the white-coats laughed mechanically. "Guards, please lead them all to the conference room. Have them seated and silent by the time I get there."

As the white-coat guards lead us out, I noticed that the Boss grabbed a canteen from one of the scientists and took a swig, his face wrinkling in disgust, but then he nodded and handed it back to the white-coat.

I looked at my companions, wondering if they had witnessed this strange scene, but only Blaine met my eye, and smiled weakly in what I guessed was reassurance. He hadn't seen it, then. But as I caught Sam's eye, I knew he had. His brow was furrowed in the same way that I'm sure mine was.

He nodded, as if to say he did know, that he was wondering the same thing I was: What was in that canteen?